Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1887-02-03
Two Kinds Of OnnressIon-

A"V Minus OF oppression.
not every employer is greedy capt.
tailst using the power his money gives
MN To Cypress the laborer. The large
majority are employing their capital in
way that would result in mutual bene-
TT were not the conditions of trade dis
turbed by strikes, where differences
could be equitably adjusted by other
means. Both labor and capital have
rights, and oppression on either side is
10 DC deprecated. The oppression of
an organization is just as much to be
condemned as that of an individual or
acorporation. Capital rightly employed
is blessing; but capitalists sometimes
become greedy, and having acquired
power through their wealth to swing
the forces Of trade and of labor into the
line of their own advancement, they
become oppressors. Labor organiza-
tions, on the other hand are sometimes
guilty of acts of oppression quite as I'M
JNoShaN0ACs AhO Va ul0i d5bdult huu
der OF coal-heavers because they persist
in working for price satisfactory to
themselves, by others of union who
have struck for higher wages, is an act
OF oppression which has no parallel in
the grievances, real or imaginary. from
which they seek relief.
The instance cited is not the only one
OF its kind on record. Labor in its i'm
patience. has often gone farther than
the power against which it complains
has gone or attempted to go. No man
can be oppressed while enjoying his full
rights consistent with law and civil
liberty. Should man desire to quit
work without the violation of con-
tract, any attempt to force him to con-
tinue would be violation of his rights
and tYrannical. So, also, should man
wish to work, any power that would
prevent him from enjoying his right in
this regard would be wrongfully and
tyrannically exercised. II q man does
not receive the compensation he de-
msnds, he can then quit, but here his
rights stop. Ho cannot say who shall
or who shall not labor, nor dictate this
or that price for labor. Wages, like
other prices, are, or should be, con-
trolled by great economic laws. of
which supply and demand is one ele-
ment. Public sentiment is strongly in
favor of labor to lawful and proper
extent, but when unions aud organiza-
lions take matters into their own hands,
and, if they do not council or approve
acts of violence, become cloaks to cover
the sins OF their uncomfortable members.
tins sentiment is weakened, and honest
labor IL defeated by its false friends.
The aims of all labor organizations
are good, but frequently their leaders
are ignorant, sometimes dangerous
men, and often the officers, wise enough
but not strong enough to keep their
men out of error, are unable to control.
BY their fruits they shall be known, and
when the good to the workingmen
themselves, not to say to the whole
country, accomplished by the Knights
of Labor and other labor organizations.
can be shown to over-balance the dam
age that has been done in loss of wages
and depression of business from strikes
and riots, then may it DO admitted that
labor is taking the right course to gain
its ends.
AS the state prison at Waupun is now
full, and it seems practicable to build
another, Prof. A. o. Wright, of the
State Board of charities and reforms, is
putting forward the proposition that a
prison be built as reformatory institu-
ton proper, where no confirmed Grim
inals should be sent. 1t would be
simply prison for first offenders, where
they would be free from the vitiating
influence of the worst class of criminals,
and where they would be reformed if
possible. The other would be used for
the hardened class, and those with life
sentences.